ATSC Publishes Interactive DTV Candidate Standard

October 2, 2003

The Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) has published the ACAP standard as candidate for standards adoption. ACAP represents the harmonization of DASE, the ATSC's interactive DTV standard, with CableLabs' OCAP interactive cable standard.

The organizations hope that ACAP will help spur new interactive television applications by providing content creators, broadcasters, cable operators and consumer electronics manufacturers with technical details necessary for the development of interoperable services and products.

"The ACAP standard is the result of a truly dedicated effort by representatives of various industry segments," said Mark Richer, ATSC president. "The challenging work of merging these two standards has created one that is stronger and more comprehensive, one that will be the ubiquitous platform for interactive television."

The candidate stage of adoption for the standard will entail implementation and technical feedback by ATSC members. As an ATSC Candidate Standard, ACAP is now under the domain of a newly formed T3 Specialist Group on ACAP chaired by Craig Smithpeters of Cox Communications.

The ATSC has also published a companion Candidate Standard for ATSC InteractionChannel Protocols (CS/96). This standard specifies protocols to enable interactive television applications using an interaction two-way channel. This could be used in combination with forward broadcast download channels from terrestrial, cable, and satellite networks.

The ACAP and Interaction Channel Protocols Candidate Standards are available atwww.atsc.org/standards.